


Shattered flight

by DarthKrande



Series: Shattered [2]
Category: Transformers Generation One, Transformers: Shattered Glass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-17
Updated: 2014-05-17
Packaged: 2018-01-25 11:03:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1646333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarthKrande/pseuds/DarthKrande
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Shattered Origin, Megatron is ready to carry the burden of leadership, rescue a much-changed Train, face his own fears, and protect Cybertron, no matter the cost... Still doesn't follow official Shattered Glass.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Home

Dwellers were large and agile creatures, native to the deepest levels of Cybertron. Riding one of them was a superlative sensation even for an experienced and brave miner like Megatron. Shockwave, riding on another dweller right behind him, was completely freaked out at first. Soundwave seemed to take it relatively well. Cy-Clone was hanging on to her beast, looking at Megatron’s stern silvery frame in front of her, daydreaming of holding him instead. The other miners sat silently, hoping Megatron knew what he was doing.   
As the dwellers started climbing upwards, the air began to feel more and more familiar. There was still an odd sensation of being lost so deep under the surface, but they knew they were going in the right direction. Home... or whatever was left of it. Not even Megatron could help thinking about the horrible explosions that must have ruined the central shaft. It was a harrowing catastrophe, he should have been there, doing his part, working to save their lives.... he feared there was nothing left to do but clean the mess. He was horrified of the mere thought of what he might find under the ruins of the mines.... his mines....  
The dwellers changed course suddenly, in perfect sync. Until this, they were going in one direction, from now, they were clearly going towards something.   
No.   
Somebot.  
They were speeding towards a tall, slim mech, light gray and blue, with a dark pattern across his face and a red insignia pre-dating the Autobot symbol. Megatron couldn’t believe his optics, but he believed the lusty strong receiving signal his transmitter was picking up. It was his Master indeed.   
The dwellers tumbled, sending their passengers rolling across the hard rock flooring of the mine. Megatron felt like running mindlessly to First, but he had to catch Cy-Clone as she was thrown off from her dweller in a less than elegant way.   
„Master! Am I glad to see you!” he cheered, nevertheless. I thought you were dead. They exchanged relieved smiles.  
„I have become one with the Matrix” First explained before greeting the newcomers. „Shockwave, the always logical. Soundwave, the listener. Welcome to your new homes. And you, milady? I don’t know you, I’m afraid.”  
„My name is Cy-Clone. I’m partly a Renegade” she explained, dropping an elegant curtesy. „Not many of my kind had made it to this wondrous world. According to Megatron, these mines are shelter to those in need. I humbly ask for your kind permission to reside here until I find some others from my species, and you have my word we will leave peacefully.”  
„You don’t have to run away” Megatron turned to her. „You are only partly a Renegade, but you’re also a Decepticon. Please, don’t ignore what we have in common.”  
„What you have in common” First interrupted „is the responsibility to find those whom you take care of. For a time, your paths would run together, and may you take encouragement from each other on your ways.”  
„We will” Megatron promised, holding Cy-Clone’s exotic-formed hand before letting her go.   
Without a word, they all left, leaving First and Megatron alone.   
The two mechs looked at each other, thoroughly. Primon noted the dents on his silvery miner: reminders of a fight he couldn’t have survived without the programming First forced into his processors in advance. Megatron examined his owner’s chestplate, checking out the damage caused by the dark energon. To their mutual relief, they found nothing but a few scratches on each other. They were both glad that the other could take care of himself, so that they could re-unite.  
„So, you’re one with the Matrix.” When he finally found the words, Megatron’s voice was filled with respect. „You knew this would happen.” You even knew when.  
„I had no control over it, if that’s what you want to know” Primon said. There was some of the usual sadness in his reassuring smile. He looked at Megatron, resting a hand on his silver shoulder, grateful that he was there for him. „Things are getting different. I am multiversal, I can no longer interfere here. It would backfire on the other universes. You are on your own.”  
Megatron acknowledged his statement with a nod. The burden was on his shoulders now, and he had agreed to it.  
„Do you know where Train was taken?”  
„In that, you are not on your own” Primon said, and disappeared as if he’d never been there.   
\- - - - - - - - -   
There was so much to do. Digging through the debris took more than two cycles, and it took another two to remove all remaining equipment from the central shaft and position them in the new main chamber deeper underground. The entrance was halfway full with detritus, and Megatron left it so, hoping it would hide them from the Autobots on the surface. To the outside, the mines had to look abandoned and barren.   
The victims had been buried in a dead-end tunnel, and Ratbat brought a fistful of local scraplets from the Omega Terminus so that their dead material could be later recycled as living metal again. Almost every survivor had injuries of different kinds, some were courtesy of the Autobot attackers, most were due to the explosions, and many of them were caused by the cave-ins that followed. They had found an Autobot cadet called Wasp. His fractured weak body was functioning despite the terrible damages it suffered, and Megatron guessed there was more to him than met the eye if he was still alive after all that he had gone through.   
The mines became silent, only the noises of hard work could be heard. It took the workers long cycles to get over all that happened, to accept their losses, and to set a defense system that would keep outstanders outside. The security system’s centre was hidden even from the miners; only Megatron knew its exact location. It was in the unusually hard rock, in the tunnel First ordered him to dig out a few orns before his death.   
The newly appointed leader was torn between his responsibilities of finding Train and keeping his subordinates from getting even worse injuries. None of them were in the condition to venture outside, and even if they gained some information, there was nothing they could have done.   
First was nowhere to be seen.  
\- - - - - - - - -  
An energon-pick buzzed online in an uncertain hand, there was a fling, and the tool was flying freely through the dimly lit tunnel, hitting the wall on the other side.  
„Not bad, Shockwave” said a melodic voice with a tone of relief and happiness. „Now it’s my turn.”  
Megatron turned in the direction of the voice, watching Soundwave brandishing the pickaxe, hoping he wouldn’t disturb the newcomers’ game. He found it amusing how quickly the two of them adapted to the life in the mines. He guessed it was because Primus’s presence could be better felt here, and they had both belonged to the God of Light just like he had.   
Megatron watched them silently as Shockwave lamented on missing the target again. Poor mech was built for office work and processing data, and with his lack of depth perception it was a miracle he could walk straight, no wonder he had terrible aim. Soundwave was doing it much better, Megatron was about to congratulate him after a direct hit, but that was until he’d seen the dartboard at the other end of the tunnel.   
„Painting politicians on the wall is not at all funny” he frowned. „And energon picks are not for throwing.”  
„Then, what are we supposed to use?” Soundwave asked in his melodic tone.   
Shockwave the Logical replied.  
„Harsh language!”  
Megatron was about to give the two a lecture of not throwing away a weapon that cannot be easily retrieved or replaced, but a dozen pebbles falling from a fracture above their heads distracted him. They were closely followed by a red and blue Empty. Soundwave welcomed Frenzy and asked whether his brother was around too.   
„He has fragged me out of my snug!” the little one lamented. He would have continued if Megatron had not interrupted him.  
„Are you Frenzy?”  
„Yes I am” the Empty replied, dusting himself off as he stood up from the ground.  
„Soundwave, congratulations. As far as I know you’re only mech who can tell one from the other.”  
„Our paint patterns are different” Frenzy reminded them, but for some reason he didn’t feel it mattered.   
The mines’ communication system sent a soft beep to Megatron. He looked into the monitors, muttered „No more painting here”, and left. If a visitor was using the universal greeting when asking for admission, his request would not be ignored. The mine owner decided he’d better go and meet him in person.  
Anxiously, the mech was standing where once the entrance was, his only compacion being a dark metallic shade that resembled Ravage in a way. Finally, a hatch behind his back opened, and in the dim light of a lone energon crystal in the wall, he saw another safety door opening up for them. He and his companion entered the small chamber behind it, not even flitching when the hatch and the safety door closed. He looked around, waiting for another door to open. He also took a tiny sample of the rock around him, analyzing it. The smaller figure sat down, waiting.   
„Bah weep graaanagnah wheep ni ni bong” the mech tried again.  
„Bah weep graaagnah wheep ni ni bong” Megatron replied from high above. The visitor looked up, only to find a ladder being hung down for him. He quickly grabbed it and started climbing. The dark robot did not attempt to follow.  
Soundwave, monitor his thoughts, but keep out of sight and stay back unless an attack occurs Megatron instructed.  
Soundwave acknowledged.  
Megatron helped the visitor up to the rim, immediately noting what they had in common.   
„Senator of Tarn, if I’m not mistaken” Megatron welcomed him. „I apologize for this skew, but this is still our best entrance.”  
„Terrible things happened down here” the senator replied. „Thank you for accepting me.”  
„What do I owe the honor, Senator Decimus?” Megatron asked, motioning towards a bench carved into the stone. The newcomer sat down without hesitation, and accepted the cube of freshly refined energon with a quick thank. Then he looked the mine owner in the optics, sipping into his cube before answering the question.  
„We up there on the surface need the energon you mine down here” he finally said. „Sentinel was out of his mind when he thought the Senate could get the mines under our control without you working them. The fool.” Then, as if he remembered only now, „Have you talked to Primon since?”  
Megatron frowned. How did the senator know?  
„Only a breem or so” he replied.   
„He must be busy catching up with the multiverse, now that he doesn’t belong here anymore” Senator Decimus murmured, finishing his cube.   
„He never belonged here” Megatron corrected him. „But he still tried to do his part.”  
The senator nodded.  
„You mean we shall get back to business, then?”  
Megatron drew two more cubes of energon, he gave one to the visitor, and kept the other for himself.   
„Last taste of the Central shaft, from level twelve” he said. „It had been mined a few joors before the shaft was....”  
„...bombed” the Senator finished the sentence for him. „How’s the reconstruction going?” he asked almost innocently.  
„Relatively well” Megatron said dryly. „We lost three irreplaceable miners. Some of the survivors are still recovering, and there is one who’s still missing.” Train. „The storages had been robbed or destroyed. What we mined out afterwards was exchanged for spare parts like an energon convertor.”   
He didn’t mean to make the politician feel uncomfortable, but Decimus turned his optics down, nodding in regret and understanding.   
„We have caused you so much pain.”  
„You did nothing” Megatron pointed out.  
„Exactly!” Decimus replied. „We are depending on you, on the energon you provide us. And we did nothing to prevent this catastrophe.”  
Now Megatron understood.  
„You have come to discuss the trade of energon, now that the former mine owner has been murdered, and the heir was almost turned into a sparkless gladiator for Autobot entertainment. That is what you came for. I admire your courage that brought you down here. Go and tell your Senate I’m willing to restart energon trading once the mines are safe and functioning again. I have no intention to see you starve into deactivation.”   
„In the name of the Senate, I’m thankful for that.”  
You well should be. „Energon is Primus’s pure blood, given to all of us unconditionally. You may be an Autobot while I am a Decepticon, but most importantly we are Cybertronians and we have no right to be greedy when it comes to energon distribution.” This is the most important of all.  
The senator’s dark companion let out an impatient beep.  
„What is it, Night Stalker?” Decimus asked, standing up from the comfortable bench, emptying his second cube.   
„He must be sensing the Autobots gathering on the surface” Megatron noted. „It might be safer for you to stay below ground level, my Senator. I will call Ravage to guide you home through the Eastern Mine, there are some pathways not even I am familiar with.”  
„You have never been to Tarn?” the senator asked. „I thought you were sparked there.”  
„But I never went back” Megatron replied. „It’s for the wealthy and elite. No offense, Senator, but I belong here.”  
Soundwave, tell Ratbat to follow the Senator from a safe distance. Ravage should be easy to track.


	2. Elsewhere

Night fell like a protective layer of darkness on the vertical city of Vos. To some, it meant the end of a tedious workday. To some others, it meant a temporary reprieve and suspension of torture.   
A mostly white mech was trying to help some gray and red panels retract to their rightful position, muttering calming and encouraging words to a severely mistransformed Decepticon.   
„Star, leave that ’Con already! You can continue that tomorrow.”  
Red optics shone in a gray, serious face. The scientist couldn’t leave Train like that.   
„Lock the doors and go home, Skyfire. I still have the report on your wondrous antigrav experience to write.”  
The larger mech grinned.  
„If you go on like this I might even be thankful. Stay here and don’t break anything!”  
The locks on the door clicked into their correct position. Starscream sat down, staring out of the energon-proof windows. He hated how they treated the objects of their experiments, he hated how he had to disassemble them in the name of science. He looked at the colorful, golden-eyed Empty caged in the corner, who was about to be dismantled for his flight ability the next orn. Not that the citizens of Vos couldn’t all fly, but science demanded perfection. Starscream wished he could at least talk back to his Autobot boss instead of being thankful for being accepted or at least tolerated as a colleague.   
„I wish I had it in me” he murmured as he walked back to the other end of the laboratory, to Train. „You said your boss would come and save you, my friend. I wish that happened, but it seems he forgot about you. I hear he even agreed to supplying us with energon again.”  
Train pulled himself together enough so that he could talk.   
„He is alive, at least. First kept telling me he would inherit the mines and would become a leader for those taking refuge down there.”  
It was such a pity they were high above the surface, far beyond the heir’s reach.  
„Hold on to your hope, that’s the dearest thing you have” the Empty said in an encouraging tone. „Be brave, Train.”  
„I am not you, Laserbeak. I’m sorry.”  
„You may not be brave but you’re durable and you have friends you can remember in the greatest despair. I am alone since Buzzsaw was killed.”  
Starscream couldn’t stand this anymore. Buzzsaw was their latest object of disassembling. Laserbeak came to free his brother – only to witness his painful death. And he was about to join him in extinction. The scientist would have gladly freed the Empty if it wouldn’t mean the certain end for his own brothers. He was a Decepticon, untrusted, unaccounted. He had to be thankful for this job he had, without it, he and his twin brothers would have offlined of the lack of fuel. Word was spreading about a mine somewhere between Polyhex and Tagan, where Decepticons could reside and keep a part of the energon they mined. He did not believe in this until Train told him it was true. He discussed the information with his brothers. Maybe, if they set Train free, they could have been admitted to the mine? Maybe. But that would have meant giving up their freedom. Giving up flying! No, Starscream was unable to do that.   
Train finally managed to transform into robot mode. He was more gray parts than red, now, and his kibble on his shoulders still felt alien to him. Starscream turned him around, checking if every component was in the right place, and making sure the tracking beacon recently attached to his chest didn’t interfere with his energon distribution. He patted his huge gray wings, noting how one was considerably larger than the other.  
„Try to accept your wings, Train. They are parts of you.... it will make mass shifting easier if your wings can follow your size changes.”  
Train stumbled to the workbench. He put his hands on the table to steady himself, and turned to face Starscream again. He looked through the window and cheered up at the sight. The sealing might have been energon-proof, but it didn’t really look miner-proof. Especially when the miner on the outside was about to start drilling through the window frame, systematically crashing through the safety sealing. His normally silver coating was dusted with the outside of the building, and he didn’t seem to be happy about the past few breems he’d had to spend hanging on an open precipice. As soon as the hole was large enough, he pressed himself through it.   
„Megatron!” the Empty recognized him when Train was still speechless. „I knew you would come for Train! Right, Train? I told you! How did you find him?”  
„We owe Ratbat a sincere thank you. He followed Decimus as he warned the Senate of us regaining our strength, and the Council of Vos was warned that we might come and free you. Ratbat made sure their fears came true” Megatron explained. With his first move, he shattered the beacon on Train’s chest panel, with the second, he set the Empty free from the cage. It was only then that he noticed the scientist hiding behind a chair. He reached for his tessaractal swords, preparing himself for an attack, but the gray and red mech finally found his voice.  
„Hey, don’t kill him, he belongs to us!” Train shouted.  
A second climber, namely Soundwave appeared in the hole.   
„Security systems still unaware of our positions” he reported. This was good news.  
Megatron looked at Starscream, really looked at him. The mech was sitting defenseless on the floor, like some vast predatory bird that could no longer fly. As he stepped out of his way, the mech sprang up and ran to the hole in the window. He transformed mid-air and disappeared from sight.   
„He is not a bad mech, and he’s really good company” the mass shifter murmured. „He and his brothers volunteered for an experience and as a result they can transform like the Autobots.... or like me. Now step aside and pray I can do this.”  
Train’s parts shifted, slid, disconnected and repositioned themselves again. He was not becoming the vehicle Megatron knew. He was becoming streamlined, and much larger than his older train mode.   
„I didn’t know the tower was this high” another voice announced as a third mech pressed himself through the hole.   
„That’s because you have no depth perception” Soundwave explained. „Logic!” he added mockingly.   
„Shockwave!” Megatron frowned. „I told you to stay put and guard the mines!”  
„Apologies.”  
Megatron turned back to Train without a word. The mech was almost ready with his transformation.  
„Impressive” he stated. „I think we should call you Astrotrain from now on.”  
Another familiar face appeared in the hole. It was Starscream again.   
„The CR facility is empty and almost unguarded” he announced. „If you want to transform, make up your minds for an alt mode and come with me.”  
The scientist transformed again, and made an aileron roll in the air, beckoning. Megatron and his two followers boarded Astrotrain, and the gray and red mech, in the form of a space shuttle, crashed through what was left of the window and followed.   
Soundwave warned them that as soon as they left, the security systems would come back online and warn the Autobots of what happened in the aerostudies science tower.


	3. Changed forever

Astrotrain landed on an elegant tower, not higher than an average building in Vos but still one of the tallest buildings Megatron had ever been to. Soundwave confirmed that Starscream had effectively offlined the facility’s security system, but he remained at the balcony to monitor the surroundings of the tower and record the Autobots’ reaction to Train’s escape. He could hear his master and Shockwave discussing the tactical benefits of transformation. His colleague had a fair point about the former Autobot privilege: taking the form of vehicles was a valuable ability, but Megatron stated that while he loathed violence, they needed tactical advantage that could only be reached if they chose to transform into weapons. Megatron even mentioned mass shifting, which Shockwave immediately refused. If he had to become a weapon, he would do so with dignity.  
Soundwave gave the arguing duo a quick look before he turned back to monitoring the Autobot activity in the research tower. He was aware of Megatron not being their master technically, since their deepest programming registered Primus as their owner, but it was still Megatron who took the late Sentinel Prime’s spark out. Shockwave asked how they were supposed to get around if they would leave the Autobots as still the only robots with vehicle modes. As if on a cue, Starscream reappeared and informed the duo he’d installed his pet project’s data into the CR chamber. Megatron asked what it was, but Starscream only replied „Trust me, it is something not even the Autobots know.” Megatron was about to mention that he didn’t have a personal experience with CR chambers, nor did he even know what the abbreviation stood for, but he didn’t have time to ask.  
„Would you try it on yourself?” Shockwave asked suspiciously. The scientist nodded.  
„I did, but it isn’t as important for me as it will be for you.”  
Hearing that, Shockwave sighed an almost inaudible „Let’s get through this fast”and offered to go first. Megatron considered there might not be time for all of them to gain the transformation ability, and he guessed the mech in the CR chamber would be vulnerable until the end of the process. Perhaps there would be only time for one of them before the Autotroopers found them here. And Shockwave needed an alt mode with a reliable shooting ability. He had to agree to the offer.   
„I will wait for you here.”  
Shockwave disappeared behind the angular doors, seemingly confident and calm. Megatron wondered what might have been happening to him. Soundwave was looking in some other direction, watching the flight of the recently freed Empty. How eye-catching he was, a flying gem of vivid colors, singing in some ancient accent of Cybertronian as he passed between the buildings. Soundwave tried to follow his flight with his optics for as long as he could.  
„Megatron wants you to prepare for getting your alternative mode” Shockwave spoke behind him. He turned around, and gave his colleague a deep look.   
His colors were the same bright yellow, so was his head and one optic. But he had a protective shield added to his chest plate, scratch-free and streamlined, making him look larger and stronger than he actually was. An extra cable was added to one of his shoulders, leading from his back to his left elbow where a hand-canon started.   
„Not bad” Soundwave admitted, looking at the hand-canon that immediately transformed back into his usual left hand.   
Megatron focused on the tank he chose for an alt mode, focused on its strength and its speed, focused on being unstoppable. That’s what he would need as a leader. But at the same time, he couldn’t help thinking about something tiny, humble, a weapon that could be held by some other Decepticon, so that he wouldn’t have to always take credit or blame on his own. It would have been a gift after being so noticeable recently. After becoming a leader.  
It felt as if his body fell apart and he was levitating between his parts without having any contact to them. It didn’t make him feel defenseless, it was even comfortable in a way. Unstoppable tank or humble pistol? He was reluctant to make the decision. Primon told him not to be afraid of becoming who he really was, but who was he really?   
His body components re-joined each other around him again, forming a body similar to his own, but not exactly the same. He felt much lighter, swifter, and more adaptive. He couldn’t see anything but silver all around him, his own shine, possibly. The light slowly retracted into him, until it allowed some comfortable shades to the corners of the tiny chamber. After what felt like a moment of eternity, the light was only coming from his chest panel, from his silvery armor protecting his spark, where the young slave’s insignia had once been. He could have gotten rid of the symbol if he wanted to, but he did not even consider this option. He was not that young anymore, and he wasn’t a slave. But he was still a Decepticon, and he had been wearing that insignia ever since he was created. He wanted it back, it was a part of him. It was the center of him. But not the humiliating graved implementation.   
He remembered Primon, his adored Master. He had an insignia on his forehead, not the purple of the evil Autobots but an amazing red. That was what he wanted. A Decepticon insignia of the same shade as his Master’s marking, to show what he was, and whom he still belonged to.   
The glowing light on his chest panel went out slowly, leaving a red pattern in its wake.   
„Soundwave, it’s your turn” he managed as he stumbled out of the chamber, feeling slightly worn, and changed beyond comprehension.  
Soundwave had already made up his mind for an alternative mode and he couldn’t wait to get it.   
„Aerialbots are circling around the research tower” he reported. „No other activity registered yet.”  
„There soon will be” Megatron noted. „Hurry, Soundwave.”  
\----------  
Shockwave transformed into a flash beam gun of his original size. He clearly refused to mass-shift.   
„There comes Xantium” he murmured.  
„I’ve never heard of her” Megatron admitted.   
„Now you will” Shockwave said. „She’s the most agile of the Wreckers.”  
„I know about them.” Wreckers. Why did we have to come across Wreckers?  
„That is logical” Shockwave noted. „They are the most brutal, even in the Autobots category. No limitations. Thus, they’re famous. Popular. They are talked about, they are written about, I have even seen comics about them.”  
„Can they sense us?” Megatron interrupted. He didn’t want to discuss comics. „So far, the Aerialbots have only been circling around the research tower.”  
„Aerialbots are too old to fight, or so I have heard. It isn’t logical. There are....”  
„Silence.”  
Megatron froze immobile as he watched Xantium. She was an enormous robot, white, gray and purple, with a bluish insignia on her chest. The rim she was standing on was slowly cracking under her weight. A flash of black and purple appeared by her waist, but it was gone in the next moment. She didn’t seem to notice it, as she was currently busy examining the climber hooks the three Decepticons left behind.  
„She knows we’re three” Megatron muttered. „And she knows we cannot fly.”  
„Logic” Shockwave replied.   
„At least you no longer have to worry about her transforming into her spaceship mode” a serious and majestic, but friendly voice announced. As both Decepticons turned around, they could see a reassuring smile on an almost white face, belonging to a mech much like Starscream, only, in the colors of the flash they had just seen. The mostly black flier was holding a piece of metal that was buffered shiny white with use and looked suspiciously like a big cogwheel. „I’m Skywarp, by the way. Starscream told us you might need air support.”  
How thoughtful. „Where is he?”  
Skywarp dropped the cog and disappeared without an answer, thinking they would learn soon enough.   
Indeed they did. A set of airbombs exploded on their far right, as the Autobots put up a chase after the hesitant and unarmed Astrotrain. Three of the Aerialbots closed on to him, and their leader was watching from high above, making sure the triplechanger would not shake his pursuers off or slip away unnoticed.   
Astrotrain may have been outgunned, but he wasn’t unprotected. Starscream was so fiercely defending him, it looked as if there were three of him. The distant fight raged on, and soon Megatron thought he saw the third member of Starscream’s trine: a blue tetrajet hit Slingshot on the nosecone, and crashed into Fireflight’s left wing. But was it the same tetrajet? Now it looked as if there were three blue Seekers, where the three Starscreams used to be.   
Despite all their efforts, Astrotrain did not look like he had a chance. Silverbolt cut in front of him, Air Raid was closing on from behind. One of the Seekers (was it Starscream?) fell gracelessly as he was shot on the left engine, and Megatron bit back a cry. Shockwave, however, did not retain himself: he shot a flash beam, wounding Silverbolt, forcing him back to the higher, safer regions of the sky.   
„Nice shot” Megatron admitted. It looked like the ability to transform really helped Shockwave’s aiming.   
„Thanks” he answered.  
Xantium turned towards them, aiming her railgun at the two. She’d seen us. The shot hit the building just above their heads, taking away whole levels with a bang. Megatron frowned as he realized the flashbeam shot just gave away their location. Maybe Shockwave was shooting better in this mode, but his logical way of thinking only seemed to work in his primary form.   
„Take cover!” Megatron yelled. „And try to take her out!”  
Shockwave repositioned himself (how he was able to move in this gun mode, Megatron wondered) and fired at Xantium’s left leg, the one that was carrying her weight as she was standing on the narrow rim.   
„Good job, now transform back!” Megatron called. I need your logic right now. „Is there a way we could safely get down from here before the rest of the Wreckers arrives?”  
„Vos is the fliers’ city-state” Shockwave pointed out. Not that Megatron hadn’t known this. „The only way of getting around is flying. Logic. We will also need to fly.” The Decepticon looked at Xantium, who was now holding on to the research tower’s small landing platform, obviously in some distress, or else she would have been firing at them again.   
Flying? No, thanks. „Listen, Shockwave. I’m grateful for your loyalty, but now I have to ask you to leave me here. I need to stay here for Soundwave, but you could get back to the mines. Be safe there, and keep it safe. If we don’t get it functional again, many mechs on Cybertron will shut down due to their lack of energon. Do not let civilians suffer such fate for some overactive Autobots.”  
Shockwave’s only optic gave Megatron a frowning stare. „Do you want me to leave you and Soundwave behind?”  
Megatron was about to say yes, but instead he yelled „Behind you!” and pulled the mech to cover. The Wreckers’ reinforcements were already here, firing at them even before they were at shooting range. Springer, the one whom Megatron met when they were invading his mines after First’s death, was hovering in helicopter mode. Those who were unable to fly were coming up from a small stairwell the Decepticons hadn’t even noticed before.   
So this was what a battle mode was for. Megatron hated the idea of harming another Cybertronian, but there was no other way out. He transformed into a tank of his own size, and rolled out to protect his fellow Decepticons. Shockwave followed him closely, covering his back. With the Wreckers getting closer and closer, he realized shooting and being able to walk at the same time was more important than aim, so he decided to stay in robot mode for a while. Transformation couldn’t help them being outnumbered, anyway. Wreckers were gaining on them.  
A shot of a silenceblaster cut the fight abruptly in half. No loud weapons could function until its last echo disappeared, no orders could be given, no cries or curses could be caused.   
What the....?  
Soundwave was standing in front of the CR chamber, having stepped out only to find his fellows being almost surrounded by Autobots thirsty for their vital, running energon.   
You chose quite some weapon!  
„Appreciation acknowledged” Soundwave nodded in his soft, melodic tone.   
Scan the CR chamber and download its software. We will need one like this at home.  
„Shockwave! Transform, and cover him!” Megatron ordered, as the effect of the silence blaster wore off. Still in tank mode, he rolled back to their earlier position at the window that Astrotrain crashed for landing. If this was the city of flying Cybertronians, there had to be flying Autobots too, alerted to the scene. He had to see.   
Xantium was still on the outside of the other building, shouting orders to her fellow Autobots down on the ground level, yelling about some transformation cog she was missing.   
„Poor Xantium, she should have got used to my outsmarting her” the teleporting black Seeker grinned at the sight. „Lord Megatron, I have a message for you. Astrotrain is safe, he will soon return to your mines when an entry is possible. Starscream, Thundercracker and I are going to provide you covering fire. Are you and your troops ready to fly?”  
Megatron looked down to the street level, but all he could see were the roofs and helipads of shorter buildings. His answer would have been a swift no.   
„Yes” he said. He hoped. Soundwave, are you ready?  
„Yes” the melodic voice replied. „But I don’t think we could get past the Autobots to the stairwell.”  
Come to the window. We’re going to fly.   
A second blast of silence swept through the corridors. Shockwave and Soundwave made it to the window, but Megatron could see their wounds even in his tank mode. Shockwave’s cable, the one powering his main canon and also his flash beam in gun mode, was torn in two. Soundwave had a hole in the middle of his forehead, and his optics were both severely damaged. His left arm was hanging lifelessly by his side.   
Can you still navigate? Megatron was worried. Those optics didn’t look like they could still see anything. Soundwave nodded. For him, hearing was enough for navigation.  
„All right, let’s go!” Skywarp initiated. He transformed to tetrajet and took off. Shockwave and Soundwave followed.   
Flight. It was a sensation similar to riding dwellers. They were riding the air, harnessing the currents, gaining speed from the winds. Skywarp led them to the other side of the tower, where the raging Xantium could not see them. The Aerialbots were still fighting, but Starscream and Thundercracker (now both of them black) were effectively keeping them busy. Skyfire, Starscream’s furious boss, looked like he was alerted in the middle of his dinner. Sky Lynx, the large Autobot cruiser coming from South seemed to be too shy to interfere. He pretended to be waiting for a better position.  
Megatron could hear the Wreckers cursing, one Autobot loudly counting from one to three, then announcing „All three are gone!”. Could he be this lucky? He very much hoped so. He didn’t want these Autobots know how much he was afraid to fly. He knew he could do it, just like Shockwave and Soundwave did, this must have been the special gift Starscream had added to the CR chamber’s software... but neither Soundwave nor Shockwave were raised deep below ground level, where there was the safety of the floor and the ensuring presence of walls and ceilings....  
The ceiling was already missing this time, since Xantium shot it away just a klik ago. There were still Autobots in the building, maybe even Wreckers. An infuriated Skyfire flew by just a few metrics away, Xantium was obviously exasperated over her stolen transformation cog. Was he, Megatron, the Decepticon leader, afraid to fly for the first time in his life?  
He sneaked close to a partly destroyed wall, wondering if he could hide among the debris until the Autobots would leave. But then he heard a voice and he was suddenly reluctant to hide anymore.  
„Check out the remains of this level, Powerglide. If you see any movement, shoot immediately.”  
No, Megatron was not willing to hide at all. You coward, are you afraid of me?  
The footsteps of the speaker indicated he went to check on the CR chamber, or rather, on what was left of it after the fusillade. Then the Autobot slowly climbed the debris to where the top of the building used to be. Megatron noted that not even a pebble rolled from the pile under his feet. He stood still as the flight-capable Autobot passed the wall he was standing behind, clenched his right hand into a fist, and hit the Autobot on the scrag, disabling his movement processing units and breaking his radio immediately. He grabbed the collapsing Powerglide’s neck with his left hand, and seated him behind the wall almost gently.   
„You will sit here, and if you don’t want Impactor to shoot you by mistake, you will remain still. Understood?”  
Powerglide gasped.  
„Who are you?” He was sure he’d seen all three Decepticons fly away.  
„Your Math teacher” Megatron grit out. He disabled the Autobot’s weapons, checked again if he was truly unable to call for assistance, and then he left him alone. Carefully, bitterly and prepared for anything, he climbed up to what now functioned as the tower’s roof.   
Impactor was examining a lifeless piece of metal that could have been Megatron’s chest panel, had Xantium fired her railgun precisely. The Decepticon realized only now how close he had been to being mercilessly offlined. And there was his enemy, caught off guard.... and he could not bring himself to transform and shoot him like he should have. He stealthly crept behind the Autobot.  
„Our Master wanted us to coexist peacefully” he said, stealing his opponent’s gun from his hand and throwing it into the debris. His unexpected words hit Impactor worse than a shot at a spark would have. He turned to look Megatron deep in the optics. He might have not even realized the loss of his weapon.  
„I had no choice” he replied finally. „He also allowed me to be free. Freedom can’t come until you become who you truly want to be.” There were bitterness and true sorrow on his face, yet there was also pride and complacence. On his chest, where once the inmate’s graved Autobot insignia used to be, was a similar marking of bluish purple and a hammer-shape across the original pattern.   
„You have become a Wrecker” Megatron nodded. „Was it worth it? Was it worth to become bait in an effort to offline First? Is that what you really wanted?”  
„There was no other option for me” Impactor explained. He looked at the debris, as if looking for his gun. But what use was that weapon? Megatron was not afraid of him, no, he was composed like a noble Decepticon leader should be. Holding on to an underenergised pocket gun, in this situation, would have felt like making a fool of himself. „I did not intend to kill Primon. I did not intend to see Longarm die. If it was for me, I would have left the mines running. Don’t put that blame on me.”  
Megatron remembered how much Impactor wanted him to die. The gladiatorial fight was his idea, and he was the one who insisted sending Skids and Mudflap against him. Later he was the one who tried to make sure Megatron died at the Sonic Canyons.   
Maybe the feeling should have been mutual.  
„You have betrayed what could have been your shelter, Impactor.” Was it worth it?  
„I need no shelter, Megatron. I’m a fighter, all I need is to wreck and rule.”  
Yet, there was some hesitation, and Megatron did not break the silence. Impactor finally admitted „Being the lowest ranking Wrecker is not exactly what I ever had in mind. I may have been a fool, but I refuse to ever be called the traitor who sold his own savior only to become a lowly cannonfodder.”  
Megatron nodded. „You have defined what you still have become.”   
They settled in an uncomfortable silence. They walked a few circles, until a pile of debris, including the gun, was accidentally kicked away and it fell gracelessly to Vos’s street level. Then the silence became at least a bit more bearable.   
„What happened to your hand?” Megatron finally asked. He had always been curious but didn’t feel Impactor felt like talking about it. Now asking seemed to be better than silence.  
„This?” the older miner asked, showing his harpoon’s blade in the shining lights. „There’s not much of a story. I was having a highgrade at a nameless oil house in Protihex, and I got injured in an explosion when the storeroom was overfilled. I would have made it without much of a dent, but a young medic insisted on repairing me. And.... he thought I would look better this way. His name is Ratchet, try to keep away from him.”  
„Thanks for the advice.”  
„I hope you won’t need it.”  
Megatron didn’t fail to notice that this wish could have been understood in more than one way. To keep it civil, he decided to hear it as „I hope you will live a long, happy life without ever getting hurt.” He turned away, watching the recently freed Empty flying by. As he lost sight of Laserbeak, he looked back at Impactor. There they were again, standing in silence, but at least it wasn’t that uncomfortable. Not that much.   
Impactor started walking again. Megatron guessed it’d be another dance around some dropped weapon (or anything that could be used as such) so he abruptly cut through the remains of the floor and stepped in front of his former colleague.  
„Going somewhere?” he asked.  
„Could I ever leave you behind?” Impactor asked back.   
„Would you like to?” Megatron asked, knowing that for most of his life, he had seen Impactor daydreaming of being somewhere further from him.   
„Are you saying you’re the mech who cares about what I want?” Impactor gritted. He may have not been the first, but a rare finding still.  
Am I? „I... I just wanted to know where you’d be, in case you needed my help again” Megatron backed away. „Which makes me remember, I’m sorry for being a slave when we got stuck together last time. Now I’m free. I hope you don’t mind my company now.”  
„Free?” Impactor laughed. Then he walked to the edge, and pointed in the direction of a shining construction on the metallic horizon. „That is Crystal City over there. The border line between Vos and your home city Tarn. Have you ever been there? You have the flight upgrade, or so I’ve been told. Have you ever flown? Have you ever seen the Hall of Heavy Industry, do you even know the name of your representative in the Cybertron Council?”  
Senator Decimus. „Why should I?”  
Impactor gave an almost sympathetic look. „You have no idea about freedom. You don’t even know what you miss.”  
Perhaps it was time to be polite.... and honest, maybe? „I know I miss you whenever I feel you should be around. I remember when we were not sworn enemies.” Except for that little snarking at each other in the very breem when we were both bought, and our constant enmity ever since.  
„Sweet frag” Impactor muttered, and seated himself comfortably on the pile, still looking away at the distance. He could hear Megatron taking a similar seat next to him. „You’re the closest thing I have to a friend.”   
Impactor stood up to look around, but he soon sat down again. This time silence didn’t feel uncomfortable at all. Maybe it was a bit irritating, waiting for something to happen, for the outside world to crash on the microsphere of them. Finally, he pulled two small cubes of energon.  
„Where did those come from?”  
„It’s subspace technology” Impactor explained. „Much like mass shifting. Do you want one?”  
Megatron accepted the cube, but did not taste it. „A bit later, thanks.”  
Impactor, too, had left his own cube intact. „You know, sometimes I think I understand. You’re so calm. Something I will never be. I couldn’t stand digging in whatever idyllic place if I couldn’t live the real life on the surface.”  
„Autobot life” Megatron nodded.  
„Yes.”  
„There would be nothing wrong with it, if you Autobots didn’t insist on destroying whatever you come across.”  
„Hey, you can’t expect an Autobot to be peaceful!”  
„I know.”  
Megatron watched as a huge aircraft came to take the trapped Xantium away. Skywarp did an amazing job, wisely defeating her without causing real harm. That’s the Decepticon way.   
He looked at Impactor, wondering why he was still sitting there, with a full cube of energon between his hand and his harpoon. By the position he was sitting in, he guessed the traitor was taking advantage of his fear of heights, blocking his way, sitting between him and the hole that would lead to the lower levels of the building. He was planning to take him as prisoner, once the Wreckers found them here. Maybe he’d already given away their location through an encrypted radio message he ignored. A message Soundwave could have easily picked up.   
He repositioned his legs, trying to look more confident. Autobots could get him. Imprison him, do whatever they want. They could not undo the mines anymore. The mines were guarded. The mines were safe.  
The mines were sanctuary for any robot who’d need them.  
He wondered if that included him. He would have loved to get back to the mines. But what could he do, if he was afraid of heights? Would he possibly fly out of the arena next time? It would be more convenient than climbing on another mech’s back like he did last time....  
His eyes lit up. Laserbeak was approaching again, and this time, he was not coming alone.  
„Goodbye, Impactor” he said, as he sprang up and hurried to the edge of the building. When he thought time was right, he started to transform. „May you have a good life” he whispered. Halfway in transformation, he lost his balance, and fell from the building.   
Impactor knew better than to be fooled a second time. If it weren’t dwellers again, it had to be one of the flight-capable Decepticons catching their Leader.   
Indeed, it was Starscream, leader of the Seeker Trine. Megatron was holding on to him as he finished transformation. He attached himself to the blue nosecone as a humble pistol, his weight only a fragment of his real mass.   
They were flying. There was some discomfort, but he finally managed to defeat fear. He was hanging on the nosecone of a mech of his kin, a noble Decepticon. They’d been maneuvering among towers and antennae, leaving the city behind. It would have been a horror if he would have had to do it on his own, but he gained confidence from Starscream, and gave him security in return. An Autobot tried to attack them from the front, but the mostly white tetrajet pulled up and he shot a beam of energy into the attacker’s wings, making him able to land safely, but unable to come after them. It felt so easy to do, so overt and self-evident. They completed each other. His firepower and Starscream’s agility were summed up, giving them a glimpse of what they could achieve together. It almost felt good.  
Then, at the mine entrance, Starscream came to a halt. He looked at the threateningly large and deep hole in the ground, where he was supposed to descend to the scary depths of Cybertron. In confusion, he transformed, and waited there until Megatron regained his real size, and they could look each other thoroughly in the optics. It took about an astrosecond before they finally nodded to each other in respect and gratitude, and went their own, separate ways. Starscream, to the luring height of the sky. Megatron, to the calling depth of the mines. But both of them, to their freedom.


	4. Tarn, Vos, trouble

There was an almost vertical section of the wide passageway, with its elevator long out of use. The passageway had once been used to transport large crates out from the mines, and sometimes, to lower equipment into the facility. Megatron had never seen it being used for the purpose it was designed for.   
However, some parts of the elevator were still there, including the chains that could safely hold any weight that would fit into the tunnel. There wasn’t much to hold, now: all that was in the almost vertical section was a lamp post that had somehow matted himself in the chains. It was dull white, silent, leaving his viewer with the impression of being watched. There was a red insignia on it, just like the one Megatron was wearing on his chestplate. There were a few Empties around it, motionless shades from the mines, chatting quietly among themselves. Megatron did not intend to wake the lamp post out of his well-deserved recharge, but as he thought idyllic, he started to transform into a robot of Megatron’s size. He didn’t unwrap himself from around the chains, but he grabbed the metallic lines once his hands were back, and he greeted the mine owner with a respectful bow of the head.   
That head must have been badly damaged during the fight. The optics were covered by a red visor, half of the face was hidden behind a faceplate. He only distantly reminded of the late Sentinel Prime’s despised servant; he was a warrior after having survived his first real battle. As Megatron examined his face further, he spotted a metallic plate that had been welded into his forehead to cover the wound. It was a spiky triangle, positioned in the middle, making Soundwave’s face look like the Decepticon insignia.   
Impressive.  
„I am a Decepticon” the former lamp post stated as he left his place and joined Megatron on the salient.  
„I didn’t mean to disturb your recharge” Megatron apologized.  
„The Senator is coming this way with news he finds disturbing” Soundwave stated. He might have been woken up at some point anyway. „Ravage already left to greet him and the Senator’s Empty companion.”  
Megatron nodded. So he guessed it right, Night Stalker was an Empty. It suddenly made some sense: Decimus and First had something in common. They were obviously on speaking terms, if the Senator of Tarn even knew what happened to Primon after his death. Megatron realized how much he missed his Master. They were hiding in his mines, finding shelter in what was once the defeated mech’s hermitage. Even Primus’s constant presence reminded him of his loss in a way.   
It’s better for him. He’s free. That’s what he wanted. I will carry on his mission as much as he would.  
„Bah weep graaanagnah wheep ni ni bong” echoed across the mines. The Senator was here.  
„Soundwave, I need you to analyze something for me if you can” Megatron suddenly said. He was holding a cube of energon he subspaced among with most of his own body mass when he transformed into his small, portable form. „Miner instinct says there is something wrong with this cube of energon. It must be polluted. I want to know everything about it.”  
„I will find the mech who can supply you with reliable information” Soundwave acknowledged, examining the cube through the many varying filters of his visor.  
„Thanks.”   
\- - - - - - - - - -   
A white and a black shadow had been sitting by the table, while the Senator of Tarn was walking in cycles as if he wanted to run and stay at the same time. No, Megatron realized. He didn’t want to flee. He wanted to do something. He wanted to fight.  
The white shadow that was the always-friendly Ravage reached out for him, poking his leg every time Decimus passed them. Night Stalker, wearing the red Decepticon insignia on the back of his neck, was half-asleep as if there was something wrong with his energon managing-distributing systems. Megatron looked at him, wondering how much his state represented Cybertron’s population as a whole. There was something seriously wrong with the way they recently secluded themselves from the once charmingly active energon mines from where they got Primus’s blood to make them function.   
„He’s been seriously damaged, Bombshell says not even he can do more for him” Decimus explained quietly. „And you know something is seriously wrong if not even the Insecticons can put him back together. Such tragedy at this early age.”  
Night Stalker stood up, as if proving he was quite functional. He would have collapsed back in an astrosecond if Ravage hadn’t been there to support him until he sat back.   
„Just a moment, Senator” Megatron knelt down next to the injured Empty, examining his well-concealed wounds.   
Each Cybertronian’s structure was different, there were some mechs who shared the same forms, but even their insides displayed some level of variation. Empties had been of the most unique builds, and while Megatron was programmed to give first aid and do basic repairs, he would have been at a loss if Senator Decimus hadn’t shown him where the battery chambers should have been.... and there was nothing. Nothing.   
Megatron didn’t have to go far to get what he needed. His strong fists crashed the decent decoration of the room, and in less than a klik, he was holding an amazingly blue energon crystal. „No mech will go offline in my mines” he murmured, as he attached cables to the mineral, then fixed it to the inside of the Empty’s plating. „May the energon of Primus himself keep you functional” he announced, then stood up and grinned at the politician.   
„Sometimes the best solution is the one close at hand.” I can’t understand why didn’t anyone think of this method before. He turned back to Night Stalker, who was now standing firm without Ravage’s support. „You will need to keep your energon consumption at a minimal level, though. And a lot of recharge.”  
„Understood.” Night Stalker gave him a paw before saying „Thank you.”  
„You’re welcome” the mine owner patted his head before turning back to an obviously amazed Decimus. „Is there anything I can do for you, Senator?”  
„Yes. Win a war for me” the Senator of Tarn demanded with a wry look on his face. „Let me go into the details. Tarn and Vos are neighboring polities, and the border dispute is getting out of our hands. Crystal City was once built to be the bridge and memento of good relations between us, but now, it is becoming the proschema as Vos would claim it.   
„Crystal City is the border and borders, as such, cannot be claimed by either side” Megatron pointed out.   
„I know! But explain that to twenty-four Vosian councilors, and maybe also to the dozens of our politicians. They are getting frustrated.”  
Megatron nodded. Politicians are prone to do that if they don’t get what they believe to be rightfully theirs. He feared that, in this case, Decimus believed to possess him, his unconditional services. That’s what happens when you lift a finger.... He said nothing.   
„As I’m confident that you’re aware....” Phrases! „Tarn has no army to speak of. Vos has scientists of the worst kind.”  
„And Wreckers” Megatron couldn’t help mentioning that. Fraggit! Only a joor ago, Impactor had even shown him Crystal City! He hated to admit that the Senator may had been right. „There are Wreckers stationed in Vos.”  
Decimus gave him a curious look. „Who? And how do you know, if I may ask?”  
If he wanted Megatron to admit freeing Train and copying the CR chamber along with the transformation technology, he would have slagging well had to order it. Then I would deny even knowing where Vos is.   
„A low-ranking Wrecker was once a friend of mine.” This might have not been the truth, but it still was the truest answer he could come up with.   
„I see” Decimus nodded. „Well, here I stated the facts, as many as I could. May I bother you with my personal impressions, Decepticon leader?”  
„I’m listening.”  
„This is a diversion. I don’t know what the big plan might be, but I have not usually seen as much mistrust in the Senate as I do now. I’m an Autobot, and even I find it terrifying.”  
Megatron nodded in acknowledgement. „I understand. Take care of Night Stalker, Senator.”  
Decimus transformed, taking the shape of an elegant diplomatic vehicle. Night Stalker purred goodbye to Ravage, and jumped into the cargo hold. They left as if they’d been chased away.  
Soundwave, tell Ratbat to be more careful this time. It may be a trap.  
„The Senator only wanted to remain neutral” the melodic voice announced just behind his back. „He’s an Autobot, and he is asking for Decepticon assistance in a situation he doesn’t understand.”  
„Doesn’t understand?” Megatron echoed. „How am I supposed to know what to do, if the Senator himself doesn’t know what the slag is going on?” No. Not slag. Something worse. Megatron had the feeling it might have something to do with dark energon. He was very much fed up with that material.   
Perhaps Soundwave was reading his thoughts again.  
„The chemical analysis should be ready in eight breems” he informed the mine owner. Megatron kicked an innocent pile of stones in bitter rage. He knew there was something in the cube Impactor tried to make him drink. He turned away from the dull white mech, not intending to share his inner turmoil with anyone. He tried to focus on the old graffiti he had seen so often. „Destiny must be harnessed, kicked and ridden until it takes you in the right direction... not just where you want to go, but where you force it.” Graffiti usually didn’t last long in the mines, with walls being shattered and removed constantly, but for some odd reason, this one seemed to remain. Megatron often mused where the quote might have come from.  
He picked an uncharted ore tunnel where he wouldn’t meet anyone, and gave himself up to mining. Hard work calmed his overheated processors, and it made him remember the good old times. It tempted with the illusion of a simple life, that of a slave miner. He wished he could crush his inner conflicts just like he could crush the ore. For each difficulty, he could remove another bit from the wall. He had practical, well-manufactured, simple tools for that. Why couldn’t his real life be just as simple?  
\- - - - - - - - - -  
Soundwave pinged him on a frequency that would have belonged to the mines’ security monitoring system. Maybe he attempted other means of contact earlier, but this was about the only way of communication Megatron wouldn’t ignore.   
„There were 11,4% sedatives in the energon cube you wished to be analyzed” he announced. „Its effects would have lasted for about a cycle. There’s no trace of killer intent in it. According to Rumble, it would have knocked you out, but would have left no permanent damage.”  
It would have been enough to get me recaptured. I outgunned Impactor at the time he gave me this cube.  
„Frenzy has another theory. He says Impactor wanted you out of his way for a relatively short period of time. Shockwave disagrees with him. He says the Wreckers might be plotting something we wouldn’t have a chance to undo later.”  
Megatron feared both of them are right.   
Send the available Empties to ask around in the mines. I need to know who are the miners who would be willing to join the fight for Crystal City.  
„Apologies?”  
We might need a diversion.  
„Acknowledged.”  
The silvery miner put his equipment down, and started his way towards the Sonic Canyons. He would’ve needed to shout his distress out to where he wouldn’t be heard. Or maybe he would be?   
He changed his mind halfway. He was at the M vein, deep under the Metallic Bay of the Rust Sea. He was aware that the cave system had no exits around here, at least for a normal-sized Cybertronian, but he was quite frank that the Empties had at least a dozen ways out to the shore.   
He heard something. He waited. He wished Soundwave was there with him, helping him find the source. Or maybe it wasn’t a noise at all. It was an exhausted, tired chirp, an echo of a birdsong, the last memory of a flight.  
„Laserbeak? Is that really you?”   
\- - - - - - - - - - - -  
Almost every Decepticon from the mines gathered up in an empty storage chamber below the Metallic Bay. Ratbat, having returned from spying, attached himself to Megatron’s lower arm, and relaxed there, hanging comfortably.   
Soundwave’s alt mode might have looked convincingly like a lamp post, but where a normal lamp’s light source would have been, the Decepticon carried a holographic projector. After determining the required size for his alt mode, Soundwave transformed and relayed the information he gathered from the exhausted Laserbeak’s mind.   
It wasn’t a good quality recording, but some shapes were clearly recognizable. Especially a certain Wrecker. Megatron guessed the Empty followed the traitor after their departure, probably out of simple curiosity. Blessed curiosity. There was a dark robotic shade admitting the ex-miner to a fortress that seemed to be standing on an island in the Rust Sea. A deep voice asked whether the transport team was ready. Impactor replied what sounded awfully like an excuse. Megatron didn’t care about his former co-miner’s scraping and bowing. He was more interested in the material that was stored in the background. Huge warehouses were standing on both sides of what looked like a spaceport, and their purple light was glimmering menacingly.   
Megatron guessed he would soon see the mastermind behind the Vos versus Tarn conflict, behind his master’s death, behind Impactor’s series of betrayals.  
But he didn’t expect it to be his namesake.


	5. Organizing chaos

The flaming mech that was once Megatronus Prime walked the fortress floor impatiently, from bridge to bridge, from haven to landing platform, and back. When finally a small semitruck arrived, he carefully loaded the mech’s trailer, holding each stake as if it was some precious treasure. For him, perhaps it was. Megatron found it disgusting.   
„I wonder what his plans might be” Cy-Clone mused.   
„He serves Unicron. Harbinger and destroyer of universes, eternal opponent of our god Primus. What do you think he might be after?” We’re the only mechs here who won’t bow down before him.  
„Primus” Shockwave stated coldly. „Logic! Primus is present in all universes. Stabbing him with dark energon here would weaken him in his whole presence.”  
Megatron frowned as he realized Shockwave was right. The Fallen ruled the surface. He had his brother Primon murdered, so that he would not interfere with his plans until it was too late. First might not cross your ways anymore, but I will Megatron seethed. I already have, when I returned to the mines you intended to use as a passway to Primus’s deep-hidden core. You thought it was the breach of his armor? Megatron clenched his hands into fists, the energon flail shone up in his right. He would make the mines the strongest part of Cybertron’s defense. But then, the Fallen might just find some other ways to poison Primus with his dark brother’s substance, if not here, then at some other point. Megatron couldn’t reinforce the whole planet.   
„You give me a chance by creating a diversion at Crystal City” he decided. „With that support I could undo that dark energon storage. Don’t do it for me. Do it for Cybertron.”  
„That plan’s crazy” Shockwave managed to visibly frown despite his head almost lacking any facial structures. „Not that any other solutions would be any more logical” he admitted an astrosecond later.   
„How do you intend to pass the guards of Hydrax Plateau?” Laserbeak asked in a pathetically low voice. „It’s on an island. Both bridges are crawling with Autobots. The air defense gave me a chase for my life, and I am a good flier. How do you intend to get past them?”  
Megatron gave the Empty a wry smile.   
„I don’t.”   
Ratbat detached himself from his arm, and connected himself to Soundwave so that his observations could be displayed too. The rest of the meeting was spent analyzing the weakness and strength of Vos, Tarn, and Crystal City in between. Ratbat’s report ended with a series of observations from Vos: although Autobots dominated the sky, there had also been many Decepticons in the fliers’ city. If those Decepticons would be shown that there was a point in fighting, there was a chance of defeating the Autobot army, then maybe they could be convinced to join the fight.   
Megatron was lost in his thoughts, but he picked up his head for Ratbat’s visions. Once Decepticons from Vos would find their courage, they would possibly be a voice of reason and might even side with the Decepticons of Tarn, which would settle the border conflict for real. But what of the Autobots? Senator Decimus, for one, was stout, charismatic and valiant, and he was willing to stand up for the good of those who relied on him. He would keep the situation under control in Tarn.   
„If it comes to that” he spoke up „we will have to make sure not to afflict the Autobot civilians of Vos.” Even if I won’t live long enough to see that. „Don’t ever forget that Primus created us, all of us, Decepticons and Autobots alike.” His audience nodded in understanding. They all were of the peaceful faction, after all. „As for you” he reached out for Frenzy and Rumble, sitting in a distant corner, pretending not to be there or maybe not to exist at all. Ravage was standing next to Soundwave, listening to orders from the larger mech. Laserbeak was nuzzling in his lap, and Ratbat was hanging from his leader’s arm again. „You are messengers no warrior can win without. You shall not be called Empties anymore. You are Recordicons.”  
„I like that!” Ravage cheered. Soundwave transformed back to robot mode, so that he could hug all of them at the same time, sharing their happiness and pride. They would not be looked down at like some secondary mech, like some waste of metal. They would be valuable members of this Decepticon community. Ratbat even thought about a career in politics, but he dropped the idea rather soon. He would have never become as calculating or traitorous.   
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
The landscape was different from what most miners expected. It was almost plain, with highways running from one city-state to another. There were large metallic fields that glimmered coldly in the light, like some bent armor of a sleeping giant. The miners transformed back to their primary modes, still wary and suspicious about transformation. It was a technological achievement stolen from the Autobots, a symbol of their superiority, their elite elegance, their deadly effectiveness.   
„The Senator’s bodyguards and advisors have assembled in the cellar of the Sleepy Lightning Pub” Soundwave announced. He must have read the mind of a participant. Now all he needed would have been finding the place from deep underground.   
„This way” Ravage seemed to be quite confident. The miners followed him.   
Cy-Clone remained in the tunnel, wondering whether this was the right decision. Should they really fight? Even if it’s only a diversion, and not the real thing, is it the wise choice? Decimus was an Autobot. Why would a ragtag band of miners support him in this conflict that wasn’t their business at all? Maybe because she trusted Megatron doing the wise thing. The Decepticons did, all of them. Even those who decided to stay back. Poor Shockwave! He was so reluctant to stay at the mines. He was almost jealous of her – she could go and fight for Megatron, he could not. And she wasn’t even a Decepticon! Well, partially, she was. She kept telling that to herself. But how could she ignore being partially a Renegade? Those Decepticons called her one of their own. How could they pretend?   
She transformed to motorcycle form, trying to escape her questions and doubts.   
\- - - - - - - - - - - - - -  
Megatron’s thoughts weren’t much different from hers. What was he doing here, really? A slave, trying to play warlord, hoping to trick the most powerful of the Original Thirteen? Why was he here? Because he had no other choice? Because there wasn’t any other robot to stand up against the Fallen? Shame on them. All of them! He realized he was so young. So inexperienced. And so alone.  
He was in a collateral of the tunnel under the Rust Sea. He’d known this area since he was a sparkling. The tunnel itself lead to the Sonic Canyons, a place where his Master used to sit for long cycles, avidly holding on to the news from the multiverse. Now First was free. Gone. When he would’ve been needed most, he couldn’t be here, quite possibly, he couldn’t even know. But he left me behind. It wasn’t much of a comforting thought.  
Megatron pressed his electrosonic sensor against the ceiling of the collateral, and started digging his way through the rock. He was relieved to find there were new dweller walks in the stone. The beasts must have drilled their ways through since he’d last been here. And that could mean only one thing: Primus was at least partially aware of the conspiracy on his surface. Megatron couldn’t get it. Why hadn’t he done anything against it?   
\- - - - - - - - - - - -  
By the time Cy-Clone could finally catch up with the Decepticon volunteers, Decimus was already sitting in the Sleepy Lightning Pub, explaining the unholy situation to Soundwave.   
„What your friend Ratbat has seen is called ’robo-smasher’. Those monsters from Vos have taken all eight Constructicons, if we cannot stop them, they might even destroy Crystal City!” he explained.  
„Could they do that?” a young miner asked.  
The Senator’s aide replied, „They have the strength.”   
„The citizens have been warned” Decimus continued. „They’ve been told to evacuate, but I’m afraid many...”  
Soundwave interrupted him.  
„I’m picking up distress signals from Crystal City’s direction.”  
The bartender marched to their table. Nobot knew who he was exactly, but he surely wasn’t an everyday mech. Yellowish glimmer covered his fat body, his red eyes and mouth gave the impression of an always-depressed face. As he came closer, their energy levels had been raised, as if he’d refilled them from some never-examined power source. His whole appearance resembled a sleepy lightning indeed.  
„Kremzeek” his soft baritone announced.   
Soundwave immediately prepared his arsenal. „Transform!” his yell sounded oddly in his melodic voice. „Autobots from Vos think they have trapped us. Let us show them, that we are Decepticons, and we are going to fight back!”  
Turmoil followed. Decepticons transformed, took their firing positions, readying themselves for the ambush.   
„Kremzeek?” the bartender attempted, trying to talk his guests out of ruining his pub.   
„No way! Shut up” Soundwave snarled at him.   
A white Recordicon jumped in front of Decimus before Night Stalker could have even stood up. Even his usually joyful optics were filled with lust for battle. „Ravage” the Senator of Tarn gasped. „I had nothing to do with this.”  
„Stay out of further trouble” the white one growled.   
„You won’t order me around!” the politician said, pulling a blaster from his subspace.   
An explosion took out the front of the building. Decepticons took cover just as the firefight broke out. Laser and energon shots filled the air, battle cries had been shouted out loud. A motorcycle hurried out from the cellar to the room’s center, and when she noted Soundwave and Decimus could well take care of themselves, she sped up and broke out of the ruined building.   
„Soundwave, they are everywhere!” a miner screamed.  
„Then we can’t miss a target! Decepticons, fend for yourselves!” Soundwave replied.   
For an astrosecond, Cy-Clone wondered if that included her. She would have preferred not to have doubts like that. She would have preferred if she could have simply driven away, but not long after she tried to do so, she realized there was no easy way out.   
A huge mech with a canon for his face was standing in her way just outside of the building.  
„They have a Guardian with them!” she announced. Suddenly she very well knew what to do. Fight.  
\- - - - - - - -   
Following the dwellers to Hydrax Plateau would have been the most disorienting task. By the time Megatron reached the surface of the Autobot-occupied island, his navigational systems had to reboot twice and he was still dizzy with the spins and twists and corners. As if the dwellers hadn’t felt like drilling these caverns Megatron moaned. Not that I could blame them. The whole area was reeking with dark energon.  
He broke up to the surface. There was liquid rust all around him. The stakes holding the plateau had corroded long ago, he honestly wondered what might have kept them together. He snuck up to the storage level, hoping to get out of the rusty structure before half the island would collapse on his head. If it has not yet fallen, I have some reason to believe it’s not due to happen in the oncoming breems, he tried to convince himself. It’s not going to collapse on me.   
He held on to his thought, hoping he was in understanding with the rusty structure. Carefully, he crawled up to the plateau’s level, hiding in the welcoming shadows of a large building. He needed time to re-calibrate his sensors, until then, he only received warnings of dark energon all around. As if I was blinded by its darkness.  
\- - - - - - - - - - -   
Most Decepticons were still looking for cover when the furious motorcycle rallied past their hiding places. Soundwave attempted to read her mind, hoping to understand the big plan.... and he found nothing but ancient hatred. Either Cy-Clone had hid her plans too deep, even out of his reach – or maybe she had no plan at all. Neither could be a good sign.  
But he was the only Decepticon who seemed to notice. Others found her bravery inspiring and encouraging, and attacked without further thinking. The Autobots had been caught by surprise: nobot had been expecting a femme to suddenly turn raving mad at the sight of the enemy. They expected the ragtag band of peaceful miners to tremble! Yet, the fragile pink femme would have been willing to engage in a fight with the whole Autobot army alone, if she hadn’t had backup.  
But she had.   
Soundwave, having registered the enemy’s confusion, ordered a direct assault to any who had not yet followed the mindless femme. It might have not been a well thought-out plan from her, but it seemed to work. For the moment.   
He promised himself that he would not allow the Autobots to change the situation.  
\- - - - - -   
Unaware of his troops’ dire fight, Megatron slunk from one shadow to the other, trying to get closer while avoiding contact with the chaos-fuel. Flames, he noticed. It was as if the main landing bay of the spaceport was set on fire. He could see shades among the flames, a part of some machinery, radiating depravity for somewhere very far away. Megatron tried to look away, but there was nothing but dark energon as far as the optics could see. He was witnessing what would be the destruction of his planet. Yet it wasn’t exactly fear that touched him. It was more like determination. He had to stop this monstrosity, no matter the cost. But this wouldn’t necessarily mean transforming into his battle mode and running the enemy down. There had to be some other, wiser way. He took cover behind a warehouse, the only warehouse that hadn’t been used as a dark energon storage. It seemed to be the clubhouse for the dock workers. Megatron leaned closer to the wall, hoping to blend in. He came with a plan, but the situation seemed much worse than what he had prepared himself for. Flames. These flames had been telltale signs of the mech known as the Fallen. And he didn’t want to know who did that machinery in the dimension bridge belong to.   
The others were safe from this, at least. Providing some diversion, putting up a mock fight when none of the participants were interested in a real battle, couldn’t be much danger.   
\- - - - - - - - -  
Cy-Clone aimed for the Guardian’s knee joint, hoping he wouldn’t crush her when he finally fell. The knee seemed to be the only vulnerable (and reachable) part of the large mech. She was careful to remain hidden behind the ankles of the dangerous mechanism, not to be stepped on, not to be seen. It was a deadly hide-and-seek, and she knew she normally shouldn’t have engaged in a fight like this, but the monstrosity endangered her recently found friends, diminished their latest hiding place, and.... fraggit, he was a Guardian, siding with the Autobots for no apparent reason. He would have deserved to die!   
She loaded her weapons again. She prepared a few grenades of automated-mined energon. Those would give the worst indigestion to even the toughest mech.  
She was waiting for the chance to fire at the knees or bomb a leg from under the Guardian, she realized it too late when an Autobot grabbed her from behind, and lifted her up in the air.   
„You will make a great test subject for my smasher” the enemy gloated. His shoulder-mounted darkness-canon pointed at the femme. „Now come with me before the Guardian makes the wrong step.”  
The motorcycle damsel struggled in and against the grip of the huge microscope. Life was unfair! How could she, a Renegade, be captured by an Autobot she had no business with? She looked at the miners now in a rush to help her and some even took on the Guardian. Were they mad? They were Decepticons. She was not. She was half of that, while her other half was.... Well, Megatron told her she was exotic, but the Decepticon Leader had been polite and he would never rub her face in her real origin.   
But being captured by a microscope was pathetic even for a gobot.   
\- - - - - - - - - - -   
Megatron could hear mechs chatting in the building. They must have been dock workers taking their energon after a long shift. Suddenly their half-refined mid-grade felt so beckoning to the miner who was shivering between the unnatural flames of the dimension-gate and the piles of dark energon throughout the whole yard. Their accents sounded as if they came from the most distant polities of Cybertron, from Polyhex and Iacon, Praxus, Altihex, Nova Cronum.... He sat down in the shadows, and listened to the end of a ballad about a kind and peaceful femmebot named Arcee. He could only guess at how the story started.  
At the end of the story, the mechs all shouted in glee. Some of them laughed at a joke he didn’t really get. Another mentioned that this was a bad shift, for when they packed normal energon, they could pilfer it. But this purplish slag was worse than thermoplastic. The workers loudly agreed.  
Then, all of a sudden, they fell silent. Megatron sneaked to the entrance to see if some robot came or contacted them. Nothing like that happened, only an old-looking mech rose from his seat. Most of his frame was deep green, with some dark purple decoration, and his optics had been shining in a merciless, proud, somewhat rabid yellow light.  
Megatron hurried back to his cover before the mech could have spotted him.   
„Hunter of War” a dock worker respectfully addressed his colleague. „Would you honor us with sharing one of your wondrous histories?”  
„Why else would I stand here in front of you all, Dion?”an irritated voice replied. „I traveled to many worlds to take my share of the killing, and to collect trophies of the most dangerous species in existence. I may be a dock worker when desperate times call for expensive weapons and special equipment, but I will remain Hunter of War, and I will now tell the story of how this yautja skull recently came into my possession....”  
The audience gasped, and the mech paused for the effect. Without actually seeing the mech, Megatron could easily picture him, standing in the center of the room, theatrically showing up the skull of the harmless poor creature.   
Hunter of War continued with his story of how he hunted down the yautja and killed him without damaging the scale or the precious skull of his prey. Even if Megatron was aware that the storyteller exacerbated, he could still imagine how brutal and obsessed Hunter could be. Of what he saw of him, in that fraction of a nanoklik, Hunter of War made the impression of a strong and enduring mech. Stopping would never be an option for him.  
He continued the story with how he skinned his prey before take-off, and how the many-legged she-monster Aira attacked him, how he was tied down to his own workbench to witness how his prey was taken away from him. By the audience’s reaction, Megatron guessed that this femmebot had already interfered with Hunter’s hunts in some earlier stories, and he couldn’t help himself respecting Aira for taking this mech on, possibly on more occasions, and being still alive. The story went on with Hunter finally breaking free from a cod of half-organic twine.   
Flames sprang high before Hunter could’ve told them how he got his trophy and his ship back from the marauder, and the dock workers steadied themselves for work again. Megatron transformed into the small gun and hid behind a crane, with only his muzzle pointing towards the center of the unnatural fire.   
And he had seen the two traitors he loathed for betraying his masters. The larger one, a black stove-like mech covered in flames, had turned on his real master, his only owner, Primus. The other, one whom Megatron knew too well, had betrayed First just a few orns ago. Formerly, he could see a metallic entity’s shade among the orange flames. Now there were only new piles of raw, unprocessed purple dark energon.  
Master, I need backup.  
The inferno on the dockyard decreased, and some of the more eager workers had already started packing and sorting the dark energon away. Megatron was not sure whether he wanted to see Hunter of War among them. Actual packing work was obviously beneath the predator.  
Megatron was still hiding in gun mode, hoping Impactor wouldn’t recognize him.   
Correction. I need a new plan.   
But what could he do with an enormous consignment of dark energon on a small half-artificial island, with nothing but the liquids of the Rust Sea around him? That exactly, he grinned. Without transforming back, he fell from the crane, into the hole on the flooring he wouldn’t have spotted in robot mode. To anyone seeing him, he was just a dusty piece of metal falling into oblivion. He wouldn’t have been missed.   
But the rusty piers holding Hydrax Plateau, he was sure those would be missed soon.  
\- - - - - - - - -  
Holding down a furious motorcycle was not what any microscope would have been designed for. Especially not when three sturdy and fully armed miners were after the lady. Perceptor shot one of them before Cy-Clone severed his darkness canon’s fuel line. The hit miner stumbled and fell, his colors faded into a dark shade of gray, his optics flickered for the last time.   
Cy-Clone could have beaten him to glass, screws and metal rasps for killing the miner. Perceptor was already offline when Soundwave’s melodic voice sobered her up.   
„The Senator was talking about a robo-smasher. As far as he could tell, it’s being tested in Crystal City.”  
Cy-Clone looked at the telepath, then at the enormous Guardian who was currently shooting his laser at civil citizens.   
„Do you think we could lure the Vosian scum from here?” Decimus asked. Both Cy-Clone and Soundwave turned to him. Last time they’d seen the politician, he wasn’t wearing the traditional Tarnish miner helm, nor had he a set of nullray guns, and he definitely wasn’t risking his life to prevent the Aerialbots from forming Superion.   
„We will have to!” one of his bodyguards replied. „These space barnacles will collapse our homes on our heads if we cannot counter-attack!” As if on a cue, an elegant tower fell with a grievous peal.   
Decimus gave Soundwave a last questioning look. „Crystal City, then?”   
Soundwave nodded silently.  
„Tarnians, transform, and follow me!”  
More than thirty armored vehicles answered his call and turned towards the border city. The Decepticon miners got on or inside, either because they didn’t have a fast alternate mode, or because they couldn’t fire their parting shots and transform at the same time.   
„Are we sure we want the big mech in our backs?” a miner asked.  
„Don’t worry about him” Cy-Clone replied. A series of small explosions could be heard behind her back, and the large Guardian suddenly turned giddy. He reached out for his wounded right knee, and then a second set of explosions damaged his chiseled hands.   
„My respect, milady” Decimus commented as the motorcycle passed by him. „Magnetic grenades?”  
„No, they were charged with energon from an automated mine. Not ours! It was.... borrowed. I trust you won’t tell Megatron? He would be insulted.”  
She pretended not to perceive the Senator’s „He’s so lucky to have you around” comment. She just realized what she said. „Not ours”?   
„Please.... don’t even mention it to him” she pleaded.  
„I won’t. None of my polity will” Decimus ensured.  
\- - - - - - - - - -  
Megatron was almost done with the weight holding piers of the Hydrax Plateau when he picked up a faint receiving signal. Moments later he could also hear First’s familiar voice, though he couldn’t make the words out. But, to his horror, he could clearly understand the deep voice that had to be the Fallen’s gloating about his plan with the Chaosbringer’s purplish essence. For a moment, his receiving signal faded away.  
Master, do you copy?   
He could hear his master walking just a metric above his head. „Crystal” he said, probably talking about the aggregate of the dark energon piled up there.  
Keep him distracted for a little longer. Megatron sighed. He was giving orders to his Master again. Last time it didn’t turn out very well.   
„But why here, where the surface is inhabited by your followers?” Primon asked bitterly.  
„Oh. The exile, protecting his former prison. How touching. How inconvenient.”  
First answered something that Megatron already knew. He was once trapped here. But he made it his home.   
„But my realm!” the Fallen pointed out.   
„If it’s so, why did your master leave so fast when I arrived here?” Primon’s weaker but clear voice was like music for the silvery miner just below. I’m ready.   
First must have turned to the lower ranking traitor. „Please my friend, don’t do anything foolish. Back away so that you won’t get hurt.” The Decepticon leader understood. First might have been talking to Impactor, but he addressed his words to Megatron. And if so, then it was an order. But how could he destroy the island, if not by collapsing it from below? He could go to the tunnel entrance, where he would have more chance of survival, but even that wasn’t very promising. But it was his best shot still.   
He could hear Primon shooing the dockworkers away. Of what he could make out, Impactor still refused to go. He said something about making up for his errors and going down like a hero. He even apologized to First. Now that’s very useful. Moron.  
Megatron transformed into his battle mode, the tank with remarkable firepower, and shot the first pier from under the Hydrax Plateau dockyard. Then he shot the second pier that was holding the weight of the warehouses. The artificial ground floor bent without its support, and the darkly glowing material started to slide towards the edge. Megatron shot the already curved third pier, and he could hear his namesake’s frantic cry of protest as the newest shipment of Unicron’s crystallized blood splashed harmlessly into the Rust Sea. A whole storage building followed after. Megatron hoped he could catch a glimpse of the Fallen himself dropping into the liquid, but he didn’t have the chance. He knew the whole island would collapse on him with the next and last shot. He aimed, he fired....  
He felt a familiar touch....  
....and he found himself in the tunnel below the island. First was still holding him, as if he would have slipped away otherwise. He knew what happened. You shouldn’t have....  
„That’s the least I could do.” First stepped away from him, and watched him transform back to the loyal and devoted miner he once bought for a ridiculous thirty thousand shanix. „You saved Primus, do you know that?”  
Megatron nodded. His structure didn’t react well to being teleported.   
„Your helping me backfires on other universes. You said it yourself” he managed. You saved my life.  
„One of those many other Megatrons was reawakened by an artifact created by the Matrix. I can live with that.”  
Megatron shrugged. If his master said so....  
„And it’s far from over yet” First continued. „The Fallen’s angry, you know. This was spectacular. He won’t come after you, however.”  
Megatron nodded again. They’ve been under the sea level, the flaming one obviously won’t follow his defeater down here, to Primus’s embrace, especially not after what just occurred. But there was something else that Megatron had to know.  
„What happened to Impactor?”  
„He started a new life” Primon answered. „When the Fallen got distracted, he couldn’t keep the dimension bridge under his control. Impactor crossed the fire and he joined Autobots in another world, to become a famous and respected Wrecker, fighting for whatever cause the Autobots have there.”  
„Will he get that?”  
First nodded.  
„Yes, he will. The journey drained his energon level and wiped out most of his memories, but yes, he gets what he wanted. Do you think that’s unfair?”  
He gets what he wanted, but at the cost of his memories? Including maybe even what he was after?  
Primon nodded again.   
„He was afraid of me running after him” Megatron smiled with a shade of sadness on his face.   
„Which reminds me” First looked at him „you should be more concerned with the mech who was still in the warehouse when the dockyard went.”  
„Hunter of War?” Guilt and a sense of defeat tore through Megatron’s spark. He even liked the exacerbating mech with his theatrical style and morbid obsession of collecting. And he sure didn’t wish for him to end like this. Being hit by a yardful of dark energon while also rusting away in the sea, alone, was not a death he would have ever wished for his worst enemy.   
„Victory doesn’t come without consequences” Primon gave him a reassuring pat, and disappeared from the tunnel.   
\- - - - - - - - - - -   
The shiny city of pure crystals had been the scene for many conflicts, some of them minor, some of them larger, but this assault by both armies had been without precedent. The mixed-faction team from Tarn was closely followed by the remaining greeting committee, although Decimus and his troops had considerably decreased their numbers and attitude.   
„Crystal City could be a trap” Soundwave mused as he landed in front of the marching Tarnians. He transformed to a lamppost, and projected a three-dimensional map of the city. He must have been monitoring the citizens’ thoughts and memories of the place.   
He indicated two groups of purple dots approaching the city from two directions, the tiny group of mixed red and purple dots being caught in the middle. It didn’t look good.   
„My ’Bots know the pathways between the crystals” Decimus said. It’d be impossible to corner us there.”  
„Unless they destroy the city around us.”  
„That might happen even if we retreat” a red and white Decepticon commented. „I may be an energon-transporter, but I can guess this much. Those mechs from Vos will destroy Crystal City if we allow them.”  
„Tankor’s right” the Autobot near him stated. „I’ve seen the Constructicons at work, I know what damage they could do if they’re reprogrammed.”  
Eight tiny green dots could be seen on Soundwave’s projected map. A Tarnian volunteered to show the way to the place they’ve been held. To the robo-smasher.   
Another, larger purple dot appeared on what meant the horizon behind them. It moved in the air, showing the mech was flying, but he was flying at a low speed as if he was bleeding energon from his wounded knee and hand. What the map couldn’t show was the anger he felt towards the female gobot who had done this to him.   
„Let’s get moving” Cy-Clone suggested. „We need to take our positions before they catch up with us.”  
She drove forward, her petrobunny-like antennae huddling up against her alt mode’s sides to make her more streamlined. She was accelerating. „Come on!” she shouted. „Do I have to win the battle alone?”  
„We will need to hold off the Vosians until you get the Constructicons” a young Autobot named Kup announced. „I’ve been missing the pleasure of kicking Wreckers in the face for too long.” The Decepticons on his cargo hold loudly agreed.   
Cy-Clone was gaining speed. When she reached the city limits, she chose a crystal that didn’t seem to be as steep as those around it, and rolled up on it. From there, she gunned her engines again, and let the momentum throw her over to another crystal. When she finally lost adhesion, she transformed and held on to the spire-like crystal tower. She could monitor the events from this place, and she was in a relatively good position to fight the flying Guardian.   
\- - - - - - - - - -  
Megatron felt he had to go back. To see what was left of Hydrax Plateau, to destroy the last remnants of the dark energon. He pushed the cracked metal away, and dug his way to the surface. As he turned back to the tunnel before climbing out, he caught a glimpse of a familiar white shadow.  
„Hi, Megatron. I have not yet had the chance to greet you today” the familiar voice almost cheered him up. He reached out to the Recordicon.  
„Hi, Ravage. How are the others?”  
„They’re fighting over Crystal City, or so I have heard. It’s not a distraction anymore, but a battle on its own right. I’m sorry.”  
Megatron would have said something about being sorry, but then he spotted something moving. It was slow, it was broken, at first look it didn’t seem to be more than just a few larger crystals of dark energon not yet washed completely away. But it was more than that. It was a mech, dark purple with some remains of the original green. His frame was crippled, but too tough to be destroyed. His optics were still shining in yellow, in a sick purplish shade of it. Megatron could feel the evil radiation of dark energon from him.   
This was all his fault. This mechanism, originally created from a rabid collector and powered by the Chaosbringer, would be the symbol of his guilt from now on. An innocent victim of his carelessness. A monster fueled by dark energon. A Prime.... a Prime of Unicron.


	6. It’s getting personal

Cy-Clone held on to the tower and prepared a new set of grenades. Soundwave figured she would take care of herself, and she had ground support. He went with the infiltration team, watching out for traps all along the way to the robo-smasher.   
„No sane robot would be willing to come this way on their own will” he muttered to himself. Apparently, half of Decimus’s team and a dozen miners had been insane. And how about the not-so-defenseless citizens, some of whom aided the invaders, some of whom tried to hold them back? Not that he expected Crystal City to be lacking citizens, but he was told that the place was evacuated. Apparently all the residing ’Bots had an opinion about their home belonging to one polity or the other. And he was shocked how many Decepticons desperately pushed each other’s masters into the way of fire, so as to let one another imprint on the newcomers. All he could do to prevent the carnage was to order his team to disable but not to permanently offline the enemy. He knew it was only a short reprieve and the ’Bots who joined the group here would gladly slaughter their fellow citizens. He ordered each citizen to be watched by at least one Decepticon or Tarnian, but he knew this was far from an effective damage control. He didn’t even dare think about what would come next.   
\- - - - - - - - - -  
Megatron was running in the channel under the Rust Sea again, trying to keep up with the white Recordicon who was scudding to the Sonic Canyons on his command. He told Ravage to get help, and when the white one asked „From where?” he explained him the real function of the Sonic Canyons. Alerting the other members of the Original Thirteen would have been his best shot. Not that he was exactly looking forward to seeing Liege Maximo, for example, but he would have surely been deadly effective against the pissed-up Fallen. I’m not sure if a showdown would only mean they finish each other. Without, like, taking half of the planet with them.  
Ravage was eager to get into this multiversal communication channel, but Megatron was certain that the Fallen wouldn’t want to let him talk for long. The little white Recordicon was running into his own destiny. But was there anything else he could do for him, other than tearing along, in hopes that he could protect him from the all-flames black menace?  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
The invaders advanced in the City, taking one crystal-building after the other, hoping to get the Robo-smasher before the Vosians would capture and crash any other Decepticons.   
„Alert! Long Haul is coming this way!” a citizen cried.   
„Is there a way we could re-capture him?” Decimus asked back as soon as he had time to reply. He fired a good shot at the city’s automated artillery system’s energy cable, and took out one-third of the ground defense. „There are alley-ways below the Green Shade Towers, see if you can corner him there!” He couldn’t listen to the replies, however. The rest of the defense system targeted him, and if it wasn’t for his quick reflexes and turbo boosters, he would have been smelted on the spot. „Come!” he instructed his body guards. „We have to prevent the Constructicons from repairing the cable!”  
„How do you know they would...?” a miner started to ask, but he finished his sentence with „Sweet Primus they are huge!”   
A reprogrammed Bonecrusher and Scrapper towered in front of them. They could hear Hook’s cydraulics hissing behind their backs.   
„We’re scrap” he wanted to say, but Soundwave’s silence blaster interrupted his words.   
\- - - - - - -  
Where the blaster’s silence had no effect, on the peak of a high crystal outside the battle’s core, was a lonely pink femme, preparing her last grenade of automatizated-mined energon. She watched the pursuers’ line, and hoped that Soundwave was reading her report from her mind. She already took down four deadly Autobot, but she couldn’t hope to hold all of them all back. That wasn’t the goal she sat for herself, anyway. There were more than enough Decepticons and citizens for that army. She bent her ear-like head kibbles as awning, and focused her optics. She knew that the angered Guardian was coming after her. This last grenade was charged for the Guardian. She never wondered what would come after that. She was half Decepticon, and she hoped at least that part of her would find a place in the Well of All Sparks. She didn’t know what would happen to her Renegade self. Maybe she would simply be forgotten. Maybe it would be better than living alone in an alien world.  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
The Sonic Canyons seemed to be as static as always, but Megatron could hear that it already carried the news of dark energon being washed away by liquid rust. Many mechs from many other dimensions got the news and spread it along, some Primes, some councilors, and oddly enough there was a Lord High Protector among them. Six of the Original Thirteen got the message. But this was the story of success, not the call for help. Maybe Primus wanted it this way? He wondered if he should call Ravage back, but he couldn’t have contacted the white Recordicon in the noise.   
He climbed up to a cliff from where he could have a better look. When he had almost reached the top, a black mech manifested right in front of him, meeting his gaze, metrics-high flames flaring from between his panels.   
Megatron reached for his tessaractal swords without thinking.  
\- - - - - - - - -   
Frenzy and Rumble accompanied the lamppost-like dull white mech as he looked at the raving crowd. Not even silence could keep tempers down, but he had done what he could, and now it was his turn to do damage. He signaled the two little Recordicons to transform their hands into piledrivers, and as soon as the effect of the silence blaster died away, the twins started hammering on the crystal that housed the Robo-Smasher. Hit by hit, they shook the ground. Their synchronized bangs confused the raging mechs in the crowd. With the passing time, they shattered the sky-scraping crystal.   
The dreaded machine fell from the high. The steel was too tough to break, but its controlling panel cleft. The device reprogrammed the small mechanism it had fallen closest to, and then its energy went out, as if it was killed by the invaders. The dark mech looked up.... he recognized his former owner, his protector, his protégé.... but he didn’t feel like doing anything about the stray missile coming towards them. Decimus’s reflexes were quick enough, however. He shot the missile before it got closer. He was damaged in the explosion, but no wound had hurt nearly as much as the unwilling treason of his Recordicon friend.   
„Goodbye, Night Stalker” he whispered. „I will remember you the way you were.” He tried to reach out for his companion, but his processors offlined due to the energon loss.   
\- - - - - - - - - -   
Megatron’s mind was preoccupied, fighting protocols took over him, his pre-programmed battle routines guided his movements as he attacked his masters’ traitor. The tessaractal swords did him honor, they could keep the multi-dimensional enemy at bay, for the time being.... for a short time.... but he couldn’t tell how long would they hold before the flames of destruction melt the metal. He would have needed a more effective weapon against the Fallen. But what kind of weapon could have he used? Flamethrowers can be crossed out for sure.   
The enemy was coming at him like an angered stove, a flaming hand caught his right forearm, his scalding touch felt like the worst heat crawling across his systems, melting his servos. Dark energon reeked like a certainty of defeat, but even if he was going to be defeated, Megatron couldn’t give up. He brandished the sword in his other, free hand, and pushed it deep under the burning vambrace. He could see his multi-dimensional trusty sword melt together in his opponent’s fire, but as he pulled it back, the grip on him loosened for just long enough for him to free his arm. He dropped the overheated sword, he could see a cut-down piece of the vambrace melt together with the blade. He looked at the Fallen, the Fallen looked at him. They both managed to wound one another, but there was no doubt who was going to kill the other. But then, I spoiled your plan, old one. The pleasure is all mine. So was the pain.   
\- - - - - - - - -   
On a high peak of crystals, Cy-Clone had no idea of Megatron having lost one of his tessaractal swords or being cornered by the flaming nemesis on the edge of the Sonic Canyons. She didn’t even know the Robo-smasher was finally neutralized and being examined by Soundwave. She didn’t care that the raving crowd froze at the instant the equipment fell. The battle was over. What both parties wanted, the personality-crashing device, was lying on the street, broken, dysfunctional. All that mattered for her was the towering Guardian, her mortal enemy, a constant and inescapable reminder of her origin.   
He turned.  
She jumped. She fired her last grenade.  
The last grenade that was loaded with inedible, soiled, automatically-mined energon.   
He was hit on the head. The cannon that was the back side of the helm fired one last blast, then short-circuited.   
She was falling.   
He lost consciousness before his huge body collapsed onto the ruins of the city.   
The impact shook the ground once more.  
\- - - - - - - - - - -  
The ground was shaking under Ravage’s paws too, the Canyon was trembling in the cacophony of sounds coming from the multiverse. He wasn’t sure his call would be heard, but if Primon trusted Megatron then so would he and do as he’d been told. But what if he would catch the attention of the traitor on fire? He sighed. At least, he would provide some distraction and give the silvery heir some time. Much needed time and distraction, he realized. Megatron was currently being beaten into the ground by his nemesis.  
Ravage looked back, and caught glimpse of a familiar mech flying out of another tunnel. He landed in robot mode just a few metrics away. He looked, perhaps questioningly, perhaps encouragingly, at the white Recordicon. Then he turned his angular face towards the damaged miner of Primus and the savage herald of Unicron. There had to be one way to fight the traitor: if Unicron’s blood could cause damage to those who belong to Primus, it also had to work the other way around. The Fallen had worked for Unicron, he was full of dark energon. And he didn’t seem to react well to Primus’s presence. If the size of the flames were anything to go by, he’d put enormous energy into shielding himself from his creator. Logic! He nodded to Ravage to start his transmission, and when the Fallen had turned towards them, he’d thrown the energon pick at him.   
And he missed the target.  
The former Megatronus Prime’s arm transformed into a robust yet elegant tube-shaped cannon, and he’d fired one lethal blast at the bold mech who dared insult and oppose him. When the dark light went out, Shockwave was there no more. 

\- - - - - - - - -   
„Soundwave!” a miner screamed. „Reinforcement is coming from Vos!”  
It took all Soundwave could do not to panic. All eight Constructicons were running on Autobot programming. The citizens were busy killing each other. Wasn’t the situation dire enough?   
The Senator only onlined a few astroseconds ago. He called out to his closest troops „Battle patrol, take your destructive modes!” but he didn’t get any reaction. Both Flak the multi-missile launcher and Sidetrack the anti-aircraft tank were large and dissuasive Autobots, but after witnessing so much destruction, they were reluctant to continue fighting.   
„No need” Soundwave announced. He’d reached into the mind of the miner, and he identified the incoming Vosians. „Reinforcement is ours.”  
The Autobots gave him questioning looks, but didn’t argue.   
\- - - - - - - -  
The Fallen had taken Megatron’s only remaining tessaractal sword. It came at a cost, the many-dimensional structure was a lot harder to hold than any other hand weapons, but as his flames bent the proud metal, he knew victory was his. He held the damaged sword in his blazing left hand and put the palm of his right on the helm of the now defenseless Megatron. Heat spread through the cranium as the once silver metal lost its shine and started to turn dark grey. The Decepticon leader didn’t need to see it, he felt instinctively that something turning gray was a bad sign. He’d only managed to pull away from his namesake’s touch when Shockwave drew the Fallen’s attention at the cost of his life. Very short reprieve.  
\- - - - - - - - - -  
The Vosian intruders called a retreat. The united army of Tarn and the miners could not go after them. There were badly injured victims who could only be saved with immediate medical attention. There were too many conflicts brought up, and there were citizens who had to be watched closely. There was no way they could get the Constructicons back, now that they marched out of the city, leaving destruction in their wake.  
Besides, a small group of Vosians arrived: a trine of Seekers, the scientist, the silent peacekeeper and the teleporter. The later was already holding Cy-Clone, whom he caught in her fall. The Senator called off any further attempts on any citizens of the neighboring polity.   
„Let’s see what’s left of the Robo-Smasher” he whispered, exhausted just like any other warrior around.  
\- - - - - - - - - - - -   
The Fallen was close to destroying the silvery mech who stood in his way. Did the fool choose the Sonic Canyons to die? So be it. He could feel Primus’s attention on them, but attention couldn’t hurt him. It felt good to show Primus how his young warrior was dying at the hands of the treacherous one. He may have been an experienced miner, but he was a youngling still. He was careless and foolhardy, like many of Primus’s short-sighted creations.   
The attack with energon-based tool would have caught him off guard. How dare that one-optic scraplet challenge him? He turned to face the newcomer, he fired his fusion cannon, and finished him with one blow. But by the time he turned back to the real enemy, the mech had got the message.   
Megatron’s helm was still burning with the memories of the hits he just received, but he was aware enough to register what had befallen. Energon-based weapon! He pulled himself together and activated his energon flail. You won’t like this. Thank you, Shockwave. Before the Fallen could have transformed his arm back from the cannon mode, the silvery miner scored a direct hit on his right spaulder. One more hit from another direction, and the arm cannon was off, still fuming, but not blazing anymore.   
The loss of his arm didn’t seem to bother the Fallen nearly as much as the message Ravage was airing into the multiverse. He looked into his opponent’s optics with disdain and loathing.   
„How dare you bear my name?” he thundered.  
Megatron gave him the answer: with the last sparks of energy left in him, he swung the energon flail for the last time, and punched the once Megatronus Prime in the face. He watched silently as the larger mech’s flames went out as he lost consciousness and collapsed into the depths of the Sonic Canyons.   
Greet Primus for me, he managed later.   
\- - - - - - - - - -  
With the hostile Vosians gone, the offline Guardian was left to the mercy of the victorious Tarnian - Decepticon alliance. Soundwave was busy examining the remains of the Robo-Smasher when the heroic femme rolled to him to ask for his opinion.   
„Is that device any good?” she asked when she realized the large white mech wasn’t disassembling the dreaded equipment. Soundwave showed her the mostly intact device, and the port of the controlling piece.   
„If you plug in, the Robo-Smasher enables us to change the Guardian’s core programming. Only you can do it, because you’re the only of your kind here. You can do anything to him, Cy-Clone. Change his way of thinking, alter his memories, you can even reverse his emotions.”  
The femme transformed, and touched the cowling of the large mech's head. She could bend or break the Guardian's mind on will?   
"I know what his greatest desire is" she whispered as she connected herself and started the overwrite process.   
She erased every memory from before his arrival here, making him believe that he was created on Cybertron. She added new emotions, real personality and new features to his programming. She even gave him a designation: she named him Omega Supreme.  
She stepped back. "May you live a happy life as an Autobot" she said as her former nemesis's new programming booted.   
Soundwave bowed his assent.  
\- - - - - - - - -  
Megatron’s head still felt as if it was going to explode, but at least his mind cleared up and he could process what he had seen and done. He had just beaten a multiversal being, one of the Original Thirteen transformers, unconscious and into the center of Primus’s attention. A slave. Having defeated Primus’s traitor. Not bad, he considered. If he had been sparked for this action, he considered it was worth it.   
Ravage was sitting next to Shockwave’s remains. A white shadow next to a small pool of molten metal. Shockwave, my friend. Why couldn’t you stay home as you’ve been told? Megatron squatted down and watched as the metal of the brave Decepticon solidified in the sounds of the canyon. You saved my life. Thank you.   
He stood up. With a sigh he hoped no-one heard, he walked back to the fight scene. He subspaced his swords. They were tainted by unholy flames, no longer tessaractal, but he hoped they could be repaired enough to be used again. He looked at them as if they represented his spark. He remembered how pure they were when he got out from the gladiatorial arena. Now, he was soiled with the Fallen’s touch. He couldn’t help thinking of the mech whom he accidentally almost killed. What had he turned Hunter of War into?  
The Fallen’s still-transformed arm was lying next to the Sonic Canyon’s edge. First, Megatron simply wanted to kick it after its wielder, but he considered it would be very rude to toss anything at Primus’s most important sensor. When he picked it up, the weapon was still warm to the touch, but in an almost friendly way. He attached it to his right arm, and he could immediately feel that the cannon was interdimensionally linked up to a black hole and drew on its antimatter as a power source. Knowing he was holding the Fallen’s weapon, Megatron could easily figure the true identity of the all-consuming blackness on the other end of the link. If every shot from the fusion cannon was draining energy from the Chaos-bringer, he had no problem with keeping it.   
He walked to the edge, wondering what Primus would decide to do with his wayward creation, now that he was returned after so many vorns. He listened to the sounds, but those did not give him away. He decided not to pry.  
Sleep well, my master. I’m standing guard.


	7. Afterflight

The battle was over, Tarn’s senator was sitting on a lone crystal in the center of Crystal City’s main square. The colorful mass of different robots formed a chaotic wide circle around him. Starscream looked around for the eighth time, but he still couldn’t find Megatron in the mess. When Soundwave finally realized his confusion, he informed the Seeker leader of Megatron’s current position and how he got there. He told about the dark energon deposit Laserbeak had found, and about Megatron asking for this battle as a diversion while he took on the Fallen alone. It sounded even more foolish an idea, even more implausible that Megatron could not only accomplish his mission but he also survived it.   
„You’ve all been helping him” Starscream pointed out. „He couldn’t have done it without you.”  
„And we couldn’t have survived this battle without you helping us out” Soundwave bowed.  
„Don’t mention it” Starscream backed away. „You came and showed me that there is a way for me if I’m willing to stand up for myself. I was in your debt. Maybe I still am. I’m thankful to Megatron, to Train, to you and Shockwave.”  
„Shockwave is dead”   
Suddenly, there was silence.  
„How?” a nearby miner asked.   
Soundwave told them as much as he could. He couldn’t read Megatron’s mind from this far, but his inbuilt and recently uncovered connection with the Recordicons allowed him to use Ravage’s database.   
Starscream listened silently as Soundwave spoke. He wasn’t sure whether he pitied the Decepticon for dying when he could have lived, or he looked up to him for dying a hero’s death. He surely wouldn’t have interfered with the business of mechs that much stronger than him.   
Senator Decimus rose. He was still on outer energon support and his right shoulder was broken, but he stood straight and victorious. His spark still ached for Night Stalker, and he couldn’t hide his reverence for those who fought side by side with him. This battle wasn’t only about Tarn, Vos and a border city between the two. It was a test of cooperation and coexistence, and he had to draw the conclusion.  
„Thank you.... every one of you. I’m not only honored, I’m overwhelmed. When I became the Senator of Tarn, I only considered myself to be the number one Autobot of my polity. I have changed. I have been changed. I have witnessed the value of mechs I foolishly looked down on before. You may not be Autobots, but you are my kin still. We called you Decepticons as if that meant something despicable. From this day on, I hope I will know better. I will never forget your heroism. You are Decepticons, your leader is proud to be one, and so should you be. Just because some of us are Autobots and some of us are Decepticons, we don’t have to be divided. You may be different from us, but you should never be looked down again. Our faction symbols shall never be the measure of any Cybertronian.”  
Those many Decepticons who lived in Crystal City, mostly slaves, looked at him in confusion, hope, and disbelief. The miners cheered. The Senator’s Autobot troops nodded in agreement.  
„We've fought side by side today, and I realized that we Autobots have something to share with you Decepticons. It is no less than the ability to transform on will. As a sign of our gratitude, I provide you this talent. We may be of two factions, but let us become one race. Let us become Transformers.”  
To the miners, the offer might have meant almost nothing. But for the suppressed Decepticons of Crystal City, this unexpected gift meant more than equality. It meant the start of a new life for them, and they were eager to accept it.   
Cy-Clone watched them, almost jealously. These cheering mechs had now belonged, to each other, to their factions, to their fellow warriors, and they were proud of each other with reason. Even the former Guardian had belonged to them, now that he was an Autobot, Omega Supreme. But before she could have admitted to herself that she was the last of her kind, Soundwave grabbed her by the shoulder and whispered into her oversized audio sensor.  
„We are all proud of Megatron but we also know whose actions he will be most proud of” Soundwave reminded her. „You may have thought so little of yourself that you didn’t even see it, but he holds you at a very high esteem. You don’t have to believe in yourself, but you have to know that he values you ever since you have met. And it’s his opinion that matters to you, isn’t it?”  
The femme gave the large mech a shy nod.   
„Thank you, Soundwave.”  
Starscream slowly backed away from the crowd, and disappeared as if he’d never been there. No-one had seen him transform and take off for South.   
\- - - - - - - - - -   
When he’d finally found Megatron, the Decepticon leader was still at the Sonic Canyons, staring at the noisy valley, as if waiting for the sounds to wash his guilt and grief away. Ravage stared at the incoming flyer, preparing to attack if he came with hostile intention, and he’d only calmed down when he’d seen the red insignias on Starscream’s wings.   
Megatron looked up, taking in the sight of the flying Decepticon in the quaking sky. He guessed that the Seeker wouldn’t be able to land where the very air was vibrating, so he gave Shockwave’s molten metal one last look, and signaled for Ravage to come with him.   
Starscream waited for him a little further from the cave opening, looking at his leader, taking in the sight. Megatron was too tired to consider how he might have looked, with the grayed helmet, the numerous burnt wounds of different size on his frame, an enormous black fusion cannon on his right arm, after causing an old dock-worker’s horrible change, after witnessing Shockwave’s death. Leadership was a hard burden. He wished he could have put it away, offline it like he’d offlined the energon flail. But he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t even talk about it, Starscream certainly couldn’t have understood.   
Ravage disappeared in the hole that led back to the mines. Megatron walked over to the Seeker, and he almost collapsed by his side. Starscream offered him a cube of high-grade energon and he eagerly accepted it. It was first aid after a long fight. Pure energon. Primus’s untainted essence. It felt as if he’d just realized what he was fighting for.   
„Are you going to keep that cannon?” Starscream asked. Megatron nodded. He wasn’t in the condition to talk about his future plans. At the moment, he wasn’t even sure if he had any.   
„It might be inconvenient” Starscream pointed out. Megatron shook his head. Maybe the weapon was too bulky to be carried all the time as a trophy, but he wasn’t going to let Starscream talk him out of keeping the fusion cannon. „Not to mention it’s power source is the ultimate chaos of the multiverse.”  
Megatron gave him an angry look. As if I didn’t know that!   
„Well, there is one way to see if it truly belongs to you” Starscream mused. „If it follows your mass shifting, it’s yours. Can you still transform?”  
Megatron admitted that the Seeker scientist had a point. He transformed into gun mode, and he was surprised to find how smoothly it went, how seamlessly the black weapon became a part of him, how it improved his sight. How its mere presence could ease his doubts a little.   
He transformed back, then looked up at the bright sky. They’d won the battle. He had to look victorious.   
„Starscream” he requested. „Please.... teach me how to fly.”


	8. Present

Megatron looked his Master in the optics, his transmitter aired that he was glad to hear those news. First sat down next to Cliffjumper’s recharge berth, his legs in a comfortable sprawl, his optics seemingly locked on the large chin of the universe-vagrant Autobot. How could a robot suddenly show up in another universe? He had been obviously confused at what he’d found here.... First tried not to remember how he felt when he found himself trapped here. He recalled all those seemingly pointless vorns he’d spent in this world, deep under the surface that was ruled by the Fallen. Wasn’t it worth it? He’d trained the mech who finally defeated the traitor. Without being trapped here, he would’ve never bought the strong mech. What would’ve they both become without each other? His smile disappeared from his face. After breaking free from his prison-world, he’d witnessed what would have happened to his silvery miner without his guidance. He blinked into those red optics, and realized that he couldn’t blame all those many other Megatrons. They had the same potential, and they used it for something they considered to be right.   
There was a moderate flash of green light, a quiet pop, as another mech appeared in the small room of the deeply hidden cave-branch. He was mostly white and crimson, with light blue and golden making his appearance elegant and impressive. His body was constructed around the whirlpool of time and space.  
„Greetings, Vector Prime” Megatron nodded. During all these vorns that passed after First was finally able to contact the multiverse, he’d become familiar with most of his Master’s extended family.  
„It’s always good to see you, Megatron. Forgive me for my eavesdropping, but I think you could help me out with an incoherence I’ve been unable to straighten out on my own.”  
The miner bowed with his head, but with the same movement, he blinked at First questioningly.  
„Anything I can do for a member of the Original Thirteen....”  
„You just said that you’d like this” Vector Prime interrupted him with a gentle smile. Megatron looked at him, confused.   
What can I do for you, Retcon?  
Primon smiled in the background. Only he could hear the silvery miner calling the guardian of time-space continuity by his nickname.   
„Take a battle damaged, barely alive Optimus Prime under your graces” Vector Prime said. „He’d been through a lot, he’d been killed, he’d been used after his death, and he’d almost killed those whom he’d loved in life. I need him repaired and ready to take leadership again.”  
Megatron could hear First gasp.  
„You’re talking about the first and original Optimus Prime” he whispered.   
Vector Prime looked Megatron in the optics.   
„He needs some time to heal, and I gladly give that. He deserves that much, don’t you think, Primon?”  
First smiled at his miner’s eager face.   
„We will leave him in the best hands.”


End file.
